Southbank Centre ‘opens doors’ to brand new free public programme, global artists and major international collaborations

• Gilbert & George open a landmark exhibition at the Hayward Gallery
• London premiere of film All Of This Unreal Time from a stellar creative team of Cillian Murphy, Aoife McArdle, Max Porter, Bryce and Aaron Dessner and Jon Hopkins
• A new creative partnership with Montreux Jazz Festival and Southbank Centre with activities in London and Montreux
• New Multitudesfestival reimagines the concert hall experience, in partnership with Southbank Centre Resident Orchestras
• Ivan Blackstock, Julia Cheng, Cassie Kinoshi, Conor Mitchell,  Max Porter and Love Ssega to become Associate Artists
• Open Doors new public programme brings host of new free events across the year
• Southbank Centre to create a new experience for young gamers in Roblox
• New experimental sound system Concrete Voids transforms the Queen Elizabeth Hall into an instrument and launches with 2025 commissioning programme

Today the Southbank Centre announces a raft of new programming highlights for the year ahead, reflecting the vision of Artistic Director Mark Ball and the venue’s role as leading creator of culture within the international artistic landscape.  

Announcing the season highlights Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre said: “We are a place where culture happens; a creative engine room that helps forge the art of the future. Born out of the Festival of Britain we offer a space where everyone, regardless of income or background, can fully participate in arts and culture and fulfill their creative potential. And we are a home for artists at every stage of their career to be their most adventurous and create extraordinary work. The highlights we are announcing today are a testament to the Southbank Centre’s core purpose: to enable artists to create new works for audiences that are ambitious, forward looking and expressive; and to be an open, democratic space where culture grows people and its benefits are widely shared.”

Highlights include: 

• A landmark exhibition by Gilbert & George at the Hayward Gallery, 21ST CENTURY PICTURES offers audiences the opportunity to discover the artists’ pictures from the past 25 years, some of which have never been seen in the UK.  With vibrant, large-scale images that explore the human experience, the exhibition embodies Gilbert & George’s motto, ‘Art for All’ (opening October 2025).
  
• Multitudes: (23 April – 3 May 2025) an electrifying new arts festival powered by orchestral music created to connect with the listeners of today. Conceived and hosted at the Southbank Centre, in partnership with the Southbank Centre’s Resident Orchestras, Multitudes showcases spectacular experiences where world-class orchestras join forces with some of the most ambitious and exciting artists, performers and creatives practising today. The multi-artform festival features national visiting orchestras and national and international artists from across art, sound, performance, dance, and spoken word. Multitudes is supported, using public funding, by Arts Council England and the National Lottery.
• A new three-year creative programming partnership between the Southbank Centre and Montreux Jazz Festival exploring the theme ‘What Is Jazz Today?’. Beginning in spring 2025, the first collaboration explores the music of the legendary Nina Simone who gave memorable performances both at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 and later at Southbank Centre as part of Nick Cave’s Meltdown in 1999. Alongside the creative programming the partnership also includes a new artist exchange programme.
• Dance Your Way Home: a new summer series for 2025 that celebrates all the ways that dance brings us together. Audiences are invited to shimmy on down for a summer of stories, music and dancing together. Curated in collaboration with Emma Warren, and the people and stories who are part of her book of the same name.
• A new Southbank Centre Associate Artist programme creates a three-year artistic partnership supporting the country’s boldest and most exciting artists to create ambitious new work. The Associate Artists for 2024 presenting their works in 2027 are musician and performing artist Love Ssega, opera and music theatre composer Conor Mitchell and choreographer Ivan Blackstock. In 2025, the artists  whose work will be presented in 2028 are choreographer Julia Cheng, saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi and author and poet Max Porter.
• The London premiere of All Of This Unreal Time, (6 Dec 2024) the standout film from Manchester International Festival starring Cillian Murphy, written by Max Porter, directed by Aoife McArdle and produced by Mary Hickson. This unique London screening features the world premiere of newly composed live music created in response to the film played live by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and Jon Hopkins as well as a Q&A with members of the creative team.
• A new collaboration between Rambert and the ground-beaking French dance collective (La)Horde: the gritty, sensual and fiercely real world premiere of Bring Your Own (7 – 10 May), including a brand-new piece commissioned exclusively for Rambert.
• Launching in summer 2025 on Roblox – one of the most popular online games in the world with over 70 million daily players – a new Roblox experience from Southbank Centre will invite young gamers (8 to 11) to apply their creativity to making and performing music.
• Expanding its already rich programme of free events, Southbank Centre’s new series Open Doors is a free and year-round offer that’s open to all and bursting with creativity. Taking place in the iconic Clore Ballroom, this series of free, public events offers creative activities, workshops, social gatherings and family entertainment. It has been created to help support people from all backgrounds, those at risk of loneliness and isolation, and the local communities of Lambeth and Southwark.  
• Creating new pathways into careers in Technical Production, attracting new talent and improving the diversity of the workforce, the Southbank Centre’s Technical Academy enters its second year and will take place in January 2025. An intensive three-week training programme for 25 participants aged 18+ with little or no experience working in Technical Production for live events and theatre, the Technical Academy introduces participants to backstage careers, providing entry-level training and ways to find work in the industry. Southbank Centre delivers Technical Academy in partnership with The Albany, Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), ATG, Factory International, Livewire Productions, National Theatre, Omnii Collective, Roundhouse, Royal Albert Hall, RNSS and The Production House.
• Illustrating ongoing innovation behind the scenes of the Southbank Centre, a new bespoke experimental sound system Concrete Voids turns the Queen Elizabeth Hall itself into a living, breathing, epic three-dimensional instrument. Concrete Voids is made up of over 80 speakers concealed within the chambers, tunnels and vents surrounding the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium and provides artists with enormous creative opportunities to design rich and complex sound-worlds that will immerse and thrill audiences. After a year of testing, Concrete Voids will debut with an artist commissioning programme in spring 2025.

Elaine Bedell, CEO of the Southbank Centre said: “What drives us here at the Southbank Centre is to make sure that every day we’re creating the conditions where  new ideas are formed and individual potential is unlocked, where culture makers come to congregate, collaborate and create their best work. Our role is to deliver the broadest and most accessible programme in the UK, which is evident in the season highlights we’re announcing today. With ambitious moments ranging from the longest-running artist-curated music festival in the world, Meltdown, to a major exposition from Gilbert and George at the Hayward Gallery next year, this season demonstrates that a powerful creative voice is being amplified from within our buildings.”  

Commenting on the partnership, Montreux Jazz Festival CEO Mathieu Jaton said: “We are thrilled to embark on this extraordinary artistic partnership with the Southbank Centre, uniting two cultural institutions with a shared passion and values for music and creative freedom. The Montreux Jazz Festival has always been a platform for innovation, and this collaboration allows us to extend that spirit of discovery to new audiences in London. Together, we aim to not only celebrate the rich legacy of jazz but also explore the meaning of jazz today in order to inspire future generations of musicians and music lovers through cross-cultural exchanges and talent development.”

Cillian Murphy said: “All of This Unreal Time is a project I have deep affection for…. It was made in the bleak depths of a pandemic, yet comes from a place of pure collaboration and love. We wanted to make a visual poem that scratches at concerns about masculinity, society, and personal responsibility… all of that knotty difficult stuff, but make it with an open and a broken heart.”

Helen Shute, CEO | Executive Producer of Rambert said:
“Rambert and the Southbank Centre share a vision for making dance an integral part of everyday life and for bringing boundary pushing work to their audiences. We’re excited to join forces and present this incredible programme, continue to surprise and inspire audiences in London, and through Rambert’s extensive touring, around the UK and internationally”.

Commenting on the LPO’s Multitudes collaboration with Circa, Ed Gardner, Principal Conductor said: “Yaron’s response to music, both personally and with Circa has always been a revelation to me. He seems to have an instinctive, innate ability to understand emotional temperature, gesture, and an underlying meaning to create a parallel world with his acrobats. Circa’s language is unique but I know with Yaron they will illuminate and underline Ravel’s wonderful, rich scores in new, wonderful ways.”

Yaron Lifschitz, Artistic Director, Circa commented: “Working with the mighty LPO under the inspirational Ed Gardner in the vast Royal Festival Hall is a thrilling opportunity. My goal is to transport the audience by providing a physical analogue to the beauty of the music.”   

Alexandra Brierley, Director of Creative Engagement at the Southbank Centre, said: “The Technical Academy is a significant opportunity to develop employer-led, pre-employment training for diverse talent and match them with future job opportunities. There is a lack of understanding about the career opportunities in technical production and we want to encourage new people into the sector – especially those from under-represented communities. We are delighted that so many key organisations in the arts and creative industry have joined the Board and wider Technical Skills Symposium series: to support this training academy, remove barriers and work together to broaden the talent pool entering the Technical Production workforce.”